OVERCOMING EVIL WITH GOOD

Doctor Doolittle, the fictional doctor who converses with animals, has delighted fans through books, movies, and plays. However, few people know that author Hugh Lofting first wrote the Doolittle tales to his children from the ghastly trenches of World War I. He later said that the war too awful to recount in his letters -- so he wrote and illustrated stories instead. These whimsical, joy-filled tales were Lofting's way of pushing back against the war's horror.

It's inspiring to see a person moving against the menacing degrading forces that seem too powerful to thwart. We admire this resilient courage because we fear that injustice, violence and greed will triumph. Sometimes we fear the whole world will be "overcomes by evil" (Rom 12:21). And these fears are well-founded if we're left to ourselves. However, God has not left us to ourselves. He filled us with his divine strength, places us in the action, and calls us to "overcome evil with good." (VS 21)

We each overcome evil with good in whatever ways God has put into our hearts. Some of us write beautiful stories. Some of us care for the poor. Some of us make our home places of welcome. Some of us share God's story through melody, poetry, or conversation. In a myriad of ways, we carry His goodness and peace into the world (VS 18), overcoming evil as we go.